Early Trump Initiatives and Effects

National Hiring Freeze

Enacted: As one of his first actions on Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order mandating a freeze on the hiring of all federal civilian positions — no vacant position can be filled and no new position may be created.

Potential Impacts:
• Inability for the Forest Service to hire seasonal firefighters ahead of wildfire season, which could mean less prescribed burning and forest health work in the spring, and critically low staffing during fire season.

• Understaffed National Parks due to rescinded job offers to thousands of seasonal employees with the U.S. National Park Service who keep the parks clean and running during high visitor times.

Tariffs

Enacted: 10% increase on goods from China; 25% increase on all steel and aluminum imports.

Proposed: Additional 25% on goods from Canada and Mexico. (Canada and Mexico tariff increases are on a 30-day pause following negotiations for the two countries to ramp up security at the border over drug smuggling and illegal immigration concerns.)

Potential Impacts:
• Increase in cost of producing goods for businesses that will likely be passed to consumers in the form of higher shelf prices.

• More expensive housing market due to increasing costs for materials (most notably steel) with 25% tariff increase and lumber from Canada (if increase goes through in March).

Mass Layoffs/Buy Outs

Enacted: Through the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) run by billionaire Elon Musk, the federal government has laid off thousands of employees from departments such as U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Agriculture and gutted the United States Agency for International Development.

Potential Impacts:
• National media report that this latest round of layoffs could impair the ability for a national response to infectious outbreaks like avian flu — a virus currently impacting the price and availability of eggs at U.S. stores.

Dismantling the U.S. Department of Education

Proposed: Trump has proposed he will dismantle the Department of Education.

Potential Impacts:
• Withholding funding from schools that use curriculum focused on race or ethnicity, or offer protections for transgender students, as well as those that require COVID vaccinations.

• Disruption to special education and Title I funding for low-income students.

• Overhauling Title IX prohibitions against gender discrimination.

• Allowing for vouchers to private or religious institutions.

This article appears in The Source Weekly February 13, 2025.